THE entire nation has been weighed down with the domestic reverberations in the United National Congress (UNC) and the bickering has allowed the People’s National Movement (PNM) Government a smooth passage to subject the citizenry to bad governance and the implementation of some questionable legislative agenda without any valid confrontation from the Opposition.

Now that the UNC has crossed a stumbling block with the pretentious Winston Dookeran, who has been gaggling bitter medicine all these years for his NAR “tabanca”, breaking away to form his COP, hell has also broken loose in the PNM.

The ruling party didn’t take warning by watering their own wilting balasier.

Maybe the Manning madness made them forget that when their neighbour house is on fire they should wet theirs.

Look how just so, out of the blues, Senator Knowlson Gift tendered his resignation with immediate effect, making sure to impress upon the nation all of his achievements during his tenure over the past five and a half years as Foreign Affairs Minister in the PNM Administration.

By the tone of the resignation letter a schoolchild can detect that the Senator had no other alternative than to resign with immediate effect or suffer the embarrassment of getting the government booths from his boss, Manning.

As the country buttress itself for the intrigue of what is shaping into a likely early general election, speculation and anxiety are already escalating throughout the various PNM constituencies.

Party group executives and sitting members of parliament are disturbed as to who would be rejected by Manning and his cabal of blue eye boys who control the screening committee and are calling all the shots, without consultation with the key activist in the constituencies.

Rumours are spreading that son of the soil Tunapuna MP, Eddie Hart, would be an early causality amongst the long list of politicians regarded as “has been” by the PM’s “hit-men” in the inner circle.

If this is a fact then the democracy in the PNM that Patrick Manning boasts about is a sham and he would have a hell of a time to convince the constituents that poor Eddie has outlived his usefulness in the political arena.

Any keen observer of politics in this country who is worth a pinch of salt would be aware that any party that wins the marginal Tunapuna seat has a good chance of forming the government.

In the 2002 general election Eddie had some serious difficulties in securing his seat.

He was almost the last candidate to be given the green light to contest as there was a plot by certain big boys and a few members of the screening committee to replace the veteran grassroots candidate.

This time around the equation is different and the Tunapuna executive would not be able to flex their muscles by holding the screening committee to ransom as the arrangements to facilitate the five new seats coupled with the houses built throughout constituency have favourable consequences for the PNM.

The long and short is that Tunapuna is no longer regarded as marginal, therefore any two-by-one-and-a-half candidate representing the balisier brigade should be able to bring home the trophy.

The magicians employed in the Elections and Boundaries Commission have removed the following polling division from Tunapuna constituency: 1765, 1770, 1775 and 1780, which consisted of 2,130 votes favourable to the UNC and placed them in the Lopinot/Bon Air West constituency according to the 2002 voting.

Polling division 1880 which is in Maracas Valley was removed from the St. Ann’s East constituency with a transfer of 523 votes favourable to the PNM.

The Housing Development Corporation has constructed over 700 houses and apartments in the Tunapuna constituency, comprising 375 apartments in Santa Margarita opposite the Hugh Wooding Law School; 100 houses in Maracas Valley; about 50 apartments in Green Street, Tunapuna; 75 apartments next the El Dorado Senior Comprehensive School; and another 75 apartments in Goya Street, Tunapuna.

From the shifting of the electoral boundaries the PNM has gained an unfair advantage of at least 1,466 votes.

Factor in the house padding in Tunapuna and one can easily add minimum 1,500 voters to their advantage.

So in reality, Tunapuna cannot be referred to as a marginal seat because the political environment has been reconstructed to secure a PNM victory whenever the next general election is called.

With the new configuration Eddie Hart has lost his bargaining power as it has now become an extremely difficult task for the UNC to recapture this seat it briefly held (2000-2001), more so when you consider the fact that COP could be nuisance value, like the dog and the flee, nibbling at the UNC voters.

Although the PNM has been able to socially reconstruct the constituency, the voters have grown to respect the representative as a true grassroots man with a common touch and a candidate who has the attributes to foster community building.

It’s common knowledge that I don’t support the PNM’s political philosophy yet my heart goes out for Eddie as he’s a true friend, a patriot and a brother who has excelled in everything that he touched.

It’s a great joy to visit the Eddie Hart Savannah on Sunday afternoon to see the joy and happiness on the faces of hundred of youths all aspiring to be the next Dwight Yorke or Russell Latapy.

However, my brother, Eddie, there is more to life than these backbiting, double-crossers, deceitful and conniving bastards posing as politicians. So let us go back to the old time days when we sat and chat in the savannah for hours without having to face the humiliation of not being able to deliver on some political promises.